where did compassion go?

back2bRN · Mar 25, 2010

Good Luck on the inservice, compassion is hard to teach, put them in the pts'shoes.

the best way I had compassion reinforced was as a student we had to be a patient with a disability and eat a meal. If we wore glasses they were off or smeared, our hands were made stiff with gloves, we were given utensils that were not easy to use, we were continually "helped" along verbally by the instructors(like some nurses "help" their patients). This exercise was to do with geriatrics and disabled, but maybe you could use it as a springboard for post op sections.

elprup, BSN, RN · Mar 26, 2010

We had a great one in nursing school. Our clinical teacher put peanut butter all over our elbows and then put a baby diaper on top and we had to wear them and the peanut butter for a good 20-30 minutes during class! Taught us what patients feel like when they sit in their feces. It was sooooo nasty I never forgot that feeling and am always very prompt when asked to help a patient who had an accident!

on a good note - my elbow was really soft, who'd have thought that peanut butter was a great moisturizer?

sistasoul · Mar 26, 2010

I am an extremely compassionate person. The problem is that there is not enough time to do some of these tasks and they must be delegated to the nurisng assistants. I am constantly spoken too about time management because I stop to help my patients to the bathroom or chage their panties when soiled or any of the numerous and varied things they may need or request. All of this puts me so far behind that I cannot chart until the end of my shift. Jus got a phone call at home today from my nurse manager about this saying the hospital could not afford the OT and that I was going to be "in trouble" if I did not improve my time management. To me this means I will probably be let go if I do not stop doing all of these things for the patients. I do not blame the nurse manager as I know the hospital is a business and her bosses come down on her. I absolutely love to give TLC to my patients. Especially to the little old ladies. I am really discouraged that nursing is all about the bottom line and less about making people they are cared for.

I don't think it is a lack of compassion but a lack of time.

pghfoxfan · Mar 26, 2010

I noticed a decrease in nurses with compassion when the economy dropped in certain areas and many people went into nursing for the wrong reasons, ie "money" or job "protection". (Understandable) These people needed a job but didn't go into the profession because they wanted to care for people. (I'm not saying this is wrong, you have to do what you have to do to survive.} I'm just saying that, IMO, that even though there were some wonderful "displaced" workers, there were many that treated nursing like a 9-5 job rather than a profession. They did what needed done, and nothing extra. As people said above, I am not sure you can teach a person compassion, it's who you are.

Zookeeper3 · Mar 26, 2010

You can't put a $$ sign on a paycheck and "MAKE" someone care. :twocents:

jctiabecerra · Mar 26, 2010

I can see that when you are busy but the nurses i speak of may have only 2 patients and they feel like the patients is a bother when asking for help

Fiona59 · Mar 26, 2010

I can see that when you are busy but the nurses i speak of may have only 2 patients and they feel like the patients is a bother when asking for help

They have been in their jobs too long. I've seen this attitude on the maternity units in my hospital. The nurses there have some of the lightest workloads in the building.

Having said that there are truly some patients that just don't want to try to do anything for themselves. C-sections go home after 72 hours. There will be no one at home to pull up their panties or walk them to the toilet. Maybe your co-workers should be offering standby assistance when they walk to the toilet and encouraging the patient to attempt to pull up their own panties under supervision.

There are a lot of divas on postpartum units (staff and patient)